GRA wrote:Course, if she'd driven 65 (say 230 max.) or 70 (210 max.) the whole way she could have easily made the trip from San Jose to Cal Poly (186 miles) non-stop with a reserve, and headed over to the eVgo QC (5 miles away) for an hour or so of charging/eating afterwards as per her original plan, while charging the phone at a jack in the restaurant (assuming that was critical - paper maps still work fine, don't rely on batteries, and give the passenger something useful to do), then back on the road with an 80% or so charge etc.

Yes, you could do that. With a full charge at the start, then sure, drive the 186 miles at 65-70mph (to make sure you get there) all the way to SLO.

Without starting with a full charge, the fastest way is still driving 100 miles (plus or minus 25 miles) and charging from 0% to 65% at only 125 amp or greater charge stations.

Others have commented on staying at a hotel with L2 to get a full charge overnight, and so on.

That's available to every EV. Even some homebuilt with 30 miles of range.

Just seven states into Chevrolet's gradual rollout of the Bolt EV, some dealerships already are discounting the car by several thousand dollars, even as others demand a markup above sticker price to take advantage of early demand.

The pricing disparity -- one dealer in Southern California was advertising a Bolt last week for $4,439 less than an identically equipped car at a store 5 miles away -- shows what happens when a new kind of vehicle meets a sprawling, old-line retail network that's only beginning to feel out the market for it.

The Bolt, with a 238-mile battery range, has no direct competition in its price range at the moment, but its novelty has a flip side for Chevy dealers who have to battle one another for a pool of customers that's still relatively small...

California dealerships, which got the Bolt first, have been the quickest to mark it down...

Stopped by the local dealer today. Liked the car at first. Seats and design seemed fine. But in the test drive, I came to realize the seats were poor design as my shoulder blades started hurting by end of test drive - clearly too narrow/not enough padding there. Salesman indicated the seats in the Premier are better as they have more padding there with the leather seats. Of course, they didn't have any Premiers out of the 8 Bolts they had on the lot.

Other aspects seemed very competitive versus the Leaf except with much better range.

So unless the Premier seats are distinctly better, the Bolt will be a no go for me. With a minimum commute of 63 miles one way, I need comfortable seats. Fortunately, I can wait for Leaf 2 or for the e-golf, B or i3 to get upgraded to the range I want.

. . . The station, as EVgo stations do, shut down after precisely 30 minutes of fast charging. Our Bolt EV, which had arrived with 78 miles of range, now showed 131 miles—meaning a half-hour boost of 53 miles, or far from the 80 percent possible in a Tesla.

And that highlights the limitations of today's fast-charging infrastructure for any car other than a Tesla: the current 50-kilowatt maximum simply doesn't permit longer-range cars to recharge anywhere near fast enough to make road trips practical. We would have required a second 30-minute session, probably even a third, to get the battery back to more than 200 miles for any kind of road trip. The Bolt EV is capable of charge rates up to 80 kw, Chevrolet says, which provides some built-in futureproofing. Since there are no public CCS stations in the U.S. now capable of delivering that rate, we don't know yet how well that works in a Bolt EV. . . .

As our reader Dawn Hall discovered on an 800-mile California road trip in her new Bolt EV, the car leaves something to be desired as a long-distance traveler. Which is a shame, frankly, because the Bolt EV is otherwise quick, smooth, quiet, spacious for its size, and an enormously competent car.

For about 200 miles. After that, there's work to be done.

Guy [I have lots of experience designing/selling off-grid AE systems, some using EVs but don't own one. Local trips are by foot, bike and/or rapid transit].

The 'best' is the enemy of 'good enough'.Copper shot, not Silver bullets.

. . . The station, as EVgo stations do, shut down after precisely 30 minutes of fast charging. Our Bolt EV, which had arrived with 78 miles of range, now showed 131 miles—meaning a half-hour boost of 53 miles, or far from the 80 percent possible in a Tesla.

And that highlights the limitations of today's fast-charging infrastructure for any car other than a Tesla: the current 50-kilowatt maximum simply doesn't permit longer-range cars to recharge anywhere near fast enough to make road trips practical. We would have required a second 30-minute session, probably even a third, to get the battery back to more than 200 miles for any kind of road trip. The Bolt EV is capable of charge rates up to 80 kw, Chevrolet says, which provides some built-in futureproofing. Since there are no public CCS stations in the U.S. now capable of delivering that rate, we don't know yet how well that works in a Bolt EV. . . .

As our reader Dawn Hall discovered on an 800-mile California road trip in her new Bolt EV, the car leaves something to be desired as a long-distance traveler. Which is a shame, frankly, because the Bolt EV is otherwise quick, smooth, quiet, spacious for its size, and an enormously competent car.

For about 200 miles. After that, there's work to be done.

Very little of this has to do with the car. It can charge up to 80kW, but that requires a 200A charger. I'm not ready to shake my fist at GM for not building infrastructure. Tesla had to in order to survive as a company. But they made it proprietary so that no one else could benefit from it (at least not without working a deal with them).

I think that a 238-EPA-mile EV with a 200A charging network similar to the superchargers is "an enormously competent car" for far beyond 200 miles.

As far as Dawn's trip goes, that has been discusses already. She would have benefited from better planning. There are lots of 60A+ chargers along her route, and plenty of hotels that offer overnight L2 charging near her destination.